Technophobes

I can deal with a lot of irrationality.  I have to, after all, most humans are driven by some form of irrationality. But I can’t deal with techophobes.

I mean, if you want to never use your shiney new gadget to its maximum potential because you’re afraid of “breaking it”, or if you never want to get shiney new gadgets due to some irrational belief that they are “too complicated”, or that you “just can’t figure them out”, go ahead.  Be irrational.  You’re only hurting yourself by not realizing the potential in what is available for you today, and technically you CAN get along just fine without them.

But don’t tell someone who has done something before, knows how it works, what it is capable of, and can explain it to you, that they can’t/shouldn’t do it.  ITS A FUCKING WIRE.  Plugging in a new wire to interface a new device is not going to hurt ANYTHING.  I know everything about setting up this interface because I have done it with a lot of different types of computers to a lot of different secondary projection / video sources.  Its actually part of my job.

But no, here’s a better idea.  Lets wait for the equally technophobic man-of-the-house to do it for you, little girl.  You couldn’t possibly know anything about electronics and you’ll break it, since you’re just a kid and you don’t have a penis.  Oh lets overlook the fact that he’s NEVER done it before, doesn’t know what your ultimate goal is, and wouldn’t know what wire goes in what port ANYWAY.  And we’ll overlook the fact that since he has no stake in the result and is also afraid of breaking the device, he’s not going to want to do it.

Busy

It really hasn’t been much of a summer so far, I’ve been very busy doing research studies, work, and unsuccessfully searching for a second job.

I’ve done a little artwork which has been nice, and some post-worthy things have happened such as going home, I’m going to try to write a little more often as the stress of DO THIS DO THAT FIND JOB WORK DO THIS has kind of been getting to me.

Giger has officially doubled in size to 2″.  It only took him about 3.5 months to do this, and some of the segments from his last molt have not yet filled out.   I wonder if he will double in size every 3.5 months or if he will grow an inch every 3.5 months?  I guess we’ll find out.  If he doubled every 3.5 months he’d be full grown in a little over  a year, and one inch every 3.5 months would give him about 3 years.  My guess is that it will only be an inch or so rather than doubling.

They’ve also increased their food intake significantly.  Euler pretty much stays under the log all the time, and runs around a lot more.  New favorite food is celery leaves–not the harder stalk, just the leaves.

…because it tastes better buried?

Now that one type of insanity ends, another begins.   Finals are over, crit is done, but now I have to find a good way to make money this summer, and lots of it.  I’ll be taking out some pretty hefty student loans come August…

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Strange things have been happening in the terrarium this past week.  I’ve been trying out some new sources of food for Giger to try and vary his diet from more than just cucumbers, so I left in a grape chopped in halfs, some lettuce, and a little cucumber in case he didnt’ like either.  Now Euler, the big brown one, has never been interested in the food we leave on the surface, and neither has Promethea (who was in my Allston terrrium at the time), but the morning after we left the grapes and lettuce, both grape halves were completely gone, and the lettuce had been half-dragged into a GIGANTIC hole, and partially mangled.  We removed the lettuce from the hole but shortly after, we discovered it had been dragged back in.

I left a bunch of grape halves and a little cucumber that night but they weren’t touched so we removed them later the next day, then I left for school.  That night, Adam discovered a bit of white “webbing” coming out of the hole, and dug it up, uncovering the lettuce AGAIN and a grape half!  Apparently Euler had developed an interest in food… but not eating it, just burying it?!?  This continues to happen–I leave a variety of food underneath their log, and the next morning half of it has been either covered in dirt or dragged into holes. I brought Promethea out Thursday and even she is joining in the game!  I don’t get it… and this has only been happening within the past week.  I do have to wonder if its indicative of some issue that I have just not come across yet.

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I also got to go to Paganfest USA a few weeks ago, I’m working on a write up from that but I haven’t really had time to sit down and do it since I’ve been trying to regain my sanity and get some other things done.  I’m still digesting my critique, and there’s been a lot going on with some of my currently running debates.  Soon I’ll have a new “ID Smackdown on Amazon” article. : )

Registration and Growth

Several things have been going on recently… aside from the usual school insanity.  My semester is over in a few weeks, and that will be a major relief.  I think i mentioned before… 6 studio classes is a BAD idea?

I’ll ramble about my millipedes first because it is more interesting than my school schedule.

So they’ve grown!  Giger has molted at LEAST one more time, and has grown at least 1/4 inch, which for a millipede that was a little under an inch out of the box, is a major change.  I dug him up on Saturday and he’s a lot more round too.  His new segments are still white and will need to fill out.  My guess is that after he grows into this molt he will be about 1.5 inches.  I’m going to try and document his growth so that by the time he’s a big fat hot-dog size monster we’ll have a record of the change and maybe a bit of data on the growth rate, since I have no idea whether he’ll continue to grow regularly at this rate or plateau in a few weeks/months, going through “spurts” like humans do.

Promethea appears to have grown a little as well, a little less than 1/2 inch I think, but it’s noticable.  I cleaned out her cage today and um, its obvious she’s eating well.  To think I was worried about her not eating before!  She just likes the substrate, sphagnum moss, and now the cork bark I put in.  You can tell where she’s eaten the cork bark, that was a VERY good purchase.  It was just a silly hermit crab decoration thing too.  It’s decaying a lot faster than the natural wood we gathered outside, which she didn’t touch.  I’ve got to gather some leaves too.  Giger slowed down on the cucumber consumption when he disappeared to molt (presumably) a week or two ago, and now he burrows a lot more instead of simply sitting under the moss.  I think he’s gotten over being stressed.  I haven’t seen Euler at all, outside of the few times we’ve dug her out.  Frequently I see Promethea when I lift up the cork bark but NEVER Euler…

Tomorrow I’m going to go try and find Pill Bugs in Fenway Park to help clean the cage so that I don’t have to often.  Rumor is they love millipede poops.  I may also take advantage of my fertilizer-machines and try to actually grow a plant, maybe a vegetable.  Maybe its bad luck, or a black thumb, or something, but I’ve never raised a plant successfully except my immortal cactus, which still miraculously lives after about 3-4 years…

So on another totally unrelated note, I got to register today, pretty much everything lined up just like I wanted, next semester will look like:

Monday:
9-11:45 : The Art and Culture of Japan (one of my friends signed up for this class too so it should be alright)
630-915: Relief Printmaking

Tuesday
8:30-1145: Digital Trio (blah)
230-310: Modern European History at Lesley (with my old philosophy professor!  Story about this already, maybe for later)

Wednesday:
9-230: Advanced Printmaking (yay for another 5-hour class \m/)
320-605: Art since 1945 (With Uncle Steck.  EPIC win)

Thursday:
Repeat of Tuesday

Friday:
9-1145 Woodworking I/II (with my current wood and stone carving professor)

Total credits: 18, out of which only 4 are “studio” classes, if you can somehow count Digital Trio as a studio class, and both Relief and Wood are 1.5 credit courses…

I’m going to get my degree audit tomorrow so I can better tell where I stand.  There was a bit of confusion about my Macroeconomics class, it registered on my unofficial transcript as a Liberal Arts, while my A+P registered as Science Requirement, so I asked about that.  Bad news: I misheard her and apparently I can’t substitute it for my Math Requirement.  Good news: I CAN substitute it for my Social Science elective.  This means the only General Education requirements I have left are liberal arts which will be filled by my 3 remaining history classes (not including next semesters) and another Science class which I’ll try and take at Bunker Hill or something when I qualify for In-state Tution.

Anyway, I’m wiped.  This semester has been a killer.

Slaying Trolls In Real Life (sort of)

Near the end of every semester, we have “overnights”, where the building is open 24 hours a day over the weekend.  This includes the various labs and lockups, so computer lab workers can sign up for shifts for what day of the week they want.  I usually enjoy Friday nights because they give me the rest of the weekend to recuperate from forcing myself awake for a 12-8 shift.  I was unfortunate this semester, and signed up just a little bit too late and while I did get my Friday Nights, I was assigned to the main building.  Generally the other building is quieter and I can get more work done, while I’ve had some bad experiences working in the main building during over nights… with angry photo kids, and broken printers, and all kinds of nonsense. But that’s for another day, maybe.

This semester the overnights were HORRIBLY  advertised.  Almost no one knew they were this weekend, so there was only one person in the lab until about 130 AM, then nothing.  Well, almost nothing…

Too much Facebook… and Roommate things.

Its like for the past few days so many things are going on involving this site… I finally changed some stuff, made a new profile for family-only and removed family from my “normal” page.  My mom freaked, as predicted.

She was so concerned, that something had happened.  That situation is a rant for another day.

Now we had some people lined up for next year since two roommates are leaving, it was pretty solid.  Then their parents got cold feet last minute and bailed, paying their housing deposit for Lesley instead.  The housing deposit is a non-refundable $500.  So much for that.

Its getting late in the semester now, everyone’s paid their housing deposits and generally found the apartment they want by now.  AND… the room that is open is a double room so that means we have to find two people to share a room.  Seems so straightforward… just find a couple or two people looking at the same time!  Yeah, right.  No one looking for an apartment wants to share a room, that’s one reason they get out of the dorms.  No one wants to share a room, instead they go out and find apartments that are more expensive where they can have their own rooms! (true story)

I’ve got some last-ditch ideas up my sleeve, but I put a listing on Facebook as a fallback.  Two random strangers are better than no people at all, and I certainly can’t afford to split the apartment AND utilities between only TWO people.  I’ve also already committed to extending the lease another year.

I got a message this evening from someone interested!  They looked sane, and seemed reasonable, but I found out they were allergic to cats.  Shot down.  But hey, that’s a good sign if on the first day there’s at least one response. Ideally, I’d like to get this dealt with by finding two people willing to share, and not have to resort to my slightly complex but potentially effective idea.  Occam’s Razor!  Eliminate the complexities!

Anyone with information or leads would be my hero.

I just hope things work out, and soon.  This is stress I do NOT need.  The semester ENDS on the 4th of may, and I’m feeling the pressure already.  Remember folks, 6 studio classes IS A BAD IDEA.  BAD.

Anath = FAIL

Its actually a BAD idea to go for months without buying any books.  Then when you have to… you go nuts.

I went into the store for ONE book on Aristotle for a project and walked out with an armful.  And I’m only at 2/30 on my list…  I was actually hoping to find a book that I stumbled across in my school library today, but didn’t.  I found a bunch more instead… and I’m proabably going to Raven’s on Friday to see if I can find the book I’m looking for… = not such a good idea?

They were all good, cheap, and irresistible:

~The Basic Works of Aristotle.  Almost 1500 pages for $10, hardcover.  A bit bruised but the insides are intact, and that’s all that matters.

~Wolf – Spirit of the Wild by the Nature Company.  Hardover for $10, stuffed with full-color, high quality photographs, illustrations and all kinds of reference material.  I probably would have paid up to $25 for the content, but I got lucky!

~The Pig that Wants to be Eaten – 100 Experiments for the Armchair Philosopher by Julian Baggini.  All of the thought experiments are only a page or two long, which is great for a day that I don’t have much time to read, but lots of time to think, which happens surprisingly frequently.  Paperback, great condition.

~The Practice and Science of Drawing by Harold Speed.  No idea what this will be about, but for $5, I can indulge my curiousity sometime during the summer maybe.  It was in reasonable condition, the cover was a bit marked up but that’s it.

~War and Morality by Richard A. Wasserstrom.  The cover for this book is too cool, and I’ve been eyeing the book for a while now.  It’s less than 140 pages so it will be fast whenever I get around to it.

~Mortals and Others- American Essays 1931-1935 by Bertrand Russell.  FINALLY I found a really good Bertrand Russell essay book.  Each essay is about 2 pages long, and brilliant.  I may have to sneak this onto my “started” shelf since I did technically read 3 random essays and I do want to read it all… but that’s cheating. :(

~Muscles and Nerves by Robert Galambos.  A small 150ish page book from the “Introduction to Biophysics” Science Study Series.  It looks kind of old, copyright 1962 but the diagrams looked like what I studied in A+P this summer so we’ll see.  It looks cool, despite the hilarious author photo on the back.

And finally

~Weather on the Planets – What we Know about Their Atmospheres by George Ohring.  Also from the Science Study Series, but this one just says “American Meteorological Society” instead of a mini series.  Adam and I just finished the first season of the Universe documentaries from the History Channel so it sounded very interesting.  I want to know how scientists find some of this stuff out.  And this guy gets a +1 on his author picture for NOT looking like dick.  Cant’ say so much for the other guy.  Both books were $2.50, definitely worth it.  They’ll go on the Short Books Reading List for when I finish the Already Started Reading List.

Glad I got Giger when I did…

So when I was considering getting an A. Gigas, I had a hard time finding one.  The only person that had them was Ken the Bug Guy, and he only shipped on certain days a week.  I went through a website called Tarantulas.inc to get Promethea, and asked if they’d have any A. Gigas in anytime soon.  They had great service and I was pleased with the product so I would like to order from them again.  Plus they have Vietnamese Rainbow Millipedes (Warning: dirty picture, but it shows off the coloring nicely) which is definitely a species I would like to get in the future so I was hoping to get both an A. Gigas and one of those at the same time.

A WEEK after I got Giger they updated their inventory with new CB A. Gigas!  These are listed as 2″ so they are about twice as big as Giger… but also $45.  Ouch.  I got Giger for $20.

I’ve also recieved a number of questions about how live bugs are actually shipped.  I took a series of photos of Euler and Giger’s packaging and I’ll make a little write up soon.  I was curious too before I opened Promethea’s box.

As for now, its time to get rest.  There’s more insanity over the horizon.

Just Webreg Things, and How Far I Am

Webreg always feels like it comes so early… but it really doesn’t.  We’re already halfway through the semester.  Just WOW.  This semester has gone by so fast.

Anyway, the courses for next semester are up so I made my schedule today.  I get to register on the second day so I anticipate actually getting into all of them.  The upcoming semester will not be quite as intense as I am planning for only 4 studio courses, two of which are both 1.5 credits.

Back on the Bike and Stuff

And it is good.

Spring “break” is over as well, and things just keep coming up. Several large long-term projects are coming up, which means I’ll have less assignments, but about the same amount of homework.

Webreg is also soon. Class postings will be up by next Monday at the latest! It feels like I JUST did this, but now its time to think about next semester. Tentatively, I want to take a book-making class, Advanced Printmaking, Natural History Drawing, and catch up on some past requirements I haven’t gotten around to yet. It’d be nice to throw in a liberal arts course or two also, and I’m finding that I should work going to Lesley regularly into my schedule, because otherwise I’m never in Harvard Square or even available during administrative hours. Blah, I don’t want to think about this right now in some ways… but it is fun.